Contact Us

Ting is Upgrading to 4G LTE

By Andrew Moore-Crispin
17-Apr-2012

We've got some exciting news for you about Ting, the new mobile phone service from your friends at Tucows…

The Ting / Sprint 4G LTE network upgrade will begin rolling out in earnest in mid-2012, starting with Baltimore, Kansas City, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Currently, Sprint (and hence, Ting) offers 4G running on the WiMAX standard radiating outward from major centers across the US. To see if your area is covered, check out the Ting coverage map. Check the Data box, enter your city and state and hit Map It. Darker orange areas are covered with 4G WiMAX.

What is 4G LTE and How Does it Affect Ting?

4G and LTE network rollouts can be a confusing topic. Especially when some carriers seem to use the two terms as one ("America’s Largest 4G LTE Network," for example) or even interchangeably. We’ll try to break it down…

What is 4G?

4G is the fourth generation of mobile communications. In cellular’s relatively short time at the fore, we’ve gone through several distinct generations starting with 0G, 1G, 2G, 3G and now (you might see a pattern developing) comes 4G. Things have gotten a little more confused with some carriers claiming 2.5G, 3.5G and other non-standard standards under the larger whole.
In short, all “4G” is not LTE… but all LTE is considered 4G.

What is LTE?

LTE stands for Long Term Evolution. At its core, LTE is a much faster mobile data technology with speed approaching or even beating your home DSL or cable connection. That’s only part of the story though. LTE’s biggest mission, as the name suggests, is to provide room for mobile to continue to grow and evolve over, you guessed it, the long term. Long term in mobile really means about a decade. LTE can service as many as 10 times the number of users on a node, so if all the equipment on a cell tower is upgraded to LTE and all phones connecting to it are LTE, 10 times as many people can use the tower without issue. It’s a more efficient use of the mobile spectrum. That’s good.

When will Ting offer LTE?

As an MVNO using the nationwide Sprint network, Ting will offer LTE alongside and in the same places as Sprint. That means the cities mentioned off the top of this article will be first, receiving LTE capability the middle of this year. Next, as Sprint rolls out the LTE network to other major city centers, Ting will be able to offer LTE in those locations at the as well. We have several LTE devices including datasticks, mobile hotspots and some pretty spiffy smartphones in-bound to coincide with the launch of the LTE network. More news as we’re able to share it.

We'll keep you posted as LTE developments allow. We’ll update the Ting blog and help.ting.com as more information becomes available. You can also catch Ting on Facebook and on Twitter as TingFTW.

About Andrew Moore-Crispin

Andrew Moore-Crispin has maintained a torrid love affair with tech as far back as he can remember. Don't tell his wife. He's been an Editor and journalist dealing with all things tech for more than a decade. Andrew is the Content Development Manager for Tucows.